Gluten-free World of Adventure

I was diagnosed gluten intolerant about three or four years
ago. When I first heard this I
panicked. What is there to eat! Certainly no bread stuff, no cookies and
cakes, I already couldn’t eat a lot of stuff due to a lactose intolerance going
back over 30 years!

Once I calmed myself down and realized that since I was the
master of the kitchen, and I made most things from scratch, the only problems I
would have is when we went out to eat. Now
instead of making sure the item I want does not contain dairy - butter and
yogurt and most cheeses are ok for me – I have to check to see that the item is
also wheat and gluten free and also poultry free! Poultry free you say? Why?

I was told to stay away from poultry when I was diagnosed
gluten free, but I was not told why. It
so happens that some people like me can’t have poultry that has been fed
gluten. Eggs also fall in that
category. I have to get poultry that is
fed a gluten free diet. I find that free
range, organic poultry and eggs work, but here in New York City we can actually get poultry,
chicken, turkey and I think even Cornish hens that are fed a gluten free
diet. At home I can have poultry and I
take a gluten free turkey if we go to one of the children’s houses for thanksgiving!

All chicken and turkey broth in my recipes are also gluten
free.

So I began to slowly turn my old recipes into new recipes
and I began experimenting with breads and pastas and pies and cakes. After having had that initial panic when told
that I am gluten intolerant, I decided that I should share my recipes with
anyone who would care to try them. You
are getting the best of my experiments and also only some of my regular recipes
since I have had to write them down.

After cooking for almost 40 years I very rarely use
measuring spoons. To write my recipes
down in gluten and lactose free versions is taking some time. I use measuring spoons and cups when I make
bread or cakes, most everything up to now has been eyeballing you could say :). But to make sure you get the recipe I want to
give you, I first convert my recipes by measuring everything and then cooking
them again, some several times, using the measurements I give you.

All the recipes in my blog are gluten free. Some naturally, some by design… But, they can
all be made by using all purpose wheat flour with a few exceptions such as the
pie crust and the bread. After cooking
for more than three years, gluten free, I wanted to share my experiences and
recipes with you. I hope you enjoy them
and they come out well for you.

I should mention here that all my recipes are lactose free as I am also lactose intolerant. But
please make sure that the dairy products that I mention are ok with your
lactoseintolerance. After 30 odd years of being lactose
intolerant I have discovered some things that I am ok with, most cheeses,
yogurt and butter. I am so used to being
lactose intolerant that it is natural for me to cook lactose free and Peter and
the children don’t even think about our kitchen being a lactose free kitchen.

Now that lactose free milks are available as well as lactose
free ice creams, I have found that on those occasions when I eat sour cream for
instance, if I have some of the lactose free milk, I don’t get sick. So do be careful. Please
be very careful of the lactose freeness in my cooking. I am ok with harder cheeses and butter, you
might not be and I don’t want for you to get sick so go with what you use when
you are cooking lactose free. I used to
use non dairy coffee creamer when I made frosting before lactose free milks
became available.

All my recipes have been approved by Peter, my husband, he
loves my cooking and I have had to make sure everything still tastes as good as
they did BEFORE…the only things that are not gluten free in our home is pasta, (it’s
too expensive to feed Peter with,) and bagels which I have not yet tried. Everything else is gluten free for anyone who
sits at our table to eat. I should add
here also lactose free. Unless I make a
point of it, no one is even aware that they are eating a lactose and gluten
free meal.

The most important thing I discovered in using gluten free
flours for baking was that it was necessary to weigh the flours on a scale rather
than using a measuring cup. I use an old
digital postal scale. Works for me!

If you make the butter sugar mix for most cookies too creamy
the cookies will spread, conversely they will be crumbly if the butter and
sugar are not creamed enough. This is
one of those things I can’t show you like you can’t smell the cooking in our
kitchen.

I also find using slightly less; I am talking 1 to 2
teaspoons of liquid in the dough mixtures makes for a sturdier bread or pasta.

I used to make THE PERFECT CHOCOLATE CAKE
with all purpose wheat flour. Now of
course I make it gluten free. 2 ¾ cups
all purpose wheat flour should be used in place of the gluten free flour. If you are using all purpose gluten free
flour using a measuring cup should be fine as they are made to weigh the same
as wheat flour.

In using my recipes you need to know to add salt to fit your
taste buds. As I cook with the least
amount of salt or no salt. Always taste
the food before the final steps of your preparation so you can adjust the
seasoning.

When I write recipes I write t for teaspoon, T for tablespoon,
c for cup. Also I just say milk or
flour, unless I specify the kind of flour I used. Remember that I am gluten as well as lactose
intolerant and all milk and flour I use are gluten and lactose free.

Have fun with your gluten free and lactose free cooking. Enjoy.

Lalina Franklin

Mrs. Gabby’s Kitchen

GLUTEN FREE
OR NOT

Each week a new recipe with or without pictures will be
added to the blog. Some weeks I might
add a bunch of recipes to get caught up.
And occasionally none at all! So
please visit the blog at least once a week to check out what is cooking in our
kitchen.

Monday, December 09, 2013

I like Kasha Varnishka, actually I love it. But sometimes I want to do something different and this method of making kasha is different. Kasha is buckwheat, despite its name has nothing to do with wheat and is used rather widely in the middle east and eastern Europe.

Coat the kasha with the oil. Toast in a hot saucepan for about 2 minutes or so. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Cover with a tight fitting cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Toast the pecans in a dry skillet over a high flame, as soon as the pecans begin to be fragrant, remove them and set aside to cool.

Add 1 T olive oil or butter in the same skillet, turn heat to low and cook the leeks for about 2 minutes, stirring. Add the sugar and water to the skillet and cook stirring for 2 more minutes. Turn off heat and let cool for a few minutes.

Toss the leeks with the kasha, sprinkle the toasted chopped pecans and serve as a side dish for a meat dish. Roast beef comes to mind, with Yorkshire pudding and beef gravy. Yum! Side dish for roasted chicken, baked fish or I like it stand alone with a salad on the side for lunch. Kasha is full of fiber and protein.

Enjoy!

*usually kasha is cooked by mixing well with egg or egg white, then toasting in a dry pan. This keeps the grains whole through the cooking process. I discovered that the same can be achieved by toasting the kasha in a little bit of oil.

**better than bouillon is a product that comes in a jar, it is a thick paste and rather salty. I use about ¾ t per cup of water and always check for saltiness before I continue with a recipe. It comes in vegetarian, beef and chicken.

The meal, the company, the table, the conversation, it could all have only been better with Nicholas and his wife Jacquie were with us. And I did not have to worry that I was eating something that would make me ill. As a bonus I only cooked two things!

We had Thanksgiving at our son Alexi’s home. This was Alexi and his wife Amber’s first Thanksgiving. Peter and I, our daughter Catharine and her honey Willy along with the children’s God father, their “Uncle Arnie” were there. Nicholas and Jacquie are out of the country this year.

Even though I am the only person at the table who is gluten intolerant, the Thanksgiving meal was totally 100% gluten free. My children did not want there to be any accidents that could make me ill, so they wanted everything on the table to be gluten free. That’s the kind of nice people they are :) Most of the dishes were cooked by Alexi and Catharine using gluten free recipes taken from my blog ‘Mrs. Gabby’s Kitchen’.

The table was graced with:

Roasted Turkey

Turkey Gravy

Dressing

Cranberry sauce

Brussels sprouts

Green beans

Sweet potato latke

Kasha varnishka

Challa

Pecan pie

Pumpkin pie

The turkey was a Murray’s gluten free turkey; as my gluten intolerance extends to poultry and eggs. Alexi chopped up the vegetables to stuff into the turkey in a food processor; normally these are rough cut by hand, his method would give the turkey more flavor.

The gravy was made with the turkey neck, giblets, vegetables and herbs made into a broth which was then strained and added to a Roux made with olive oil and garbanzo bean flour from Bob’s Red Mill. A little broth was added to the bottom of the turkey pan to get the browned bits to make the sauce brown and to add more flavor.

(Accidentally the Reynolds's turkey bag used to cook the turkey, touched the top of the oven and burned and the turkey had to be roasted without a bag, it was fine, unfortunately no gravy was produced, only browned flavorful bits.)

The dressing was made with one of the previous efforts of Challa I had made, instead of cornbread and using some of the broth made with turkey neck etc. and Murray's chicken liver. If we had to have made cornbread, we would have used Bob’s Red Mill gluten freecornbread mix.

Cranberry sauce Alexi made a little different than my usual, I think he forgot it was on the stove but the flavor was super, he let most of the juices cook down and caramelize. A good adjustment. Good things in kitchens happen accidentally.

Brussels sprouts were cooked and then baked in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350F to warm up as well as get lightly roasted. Lightly roasting was another good adjustment.

Green beans were steamed, then sautéed with a little olive oil and garlic.

The sweet potato latke was mixed with garbanzo bean flour. About a ¼ to ½ cup of flour was added to the 2 lbs of sweet potato and red skin potato mixture. The amount of flour added vary according to how much liquid could be removed from the shredded potato mixture. The Eggland’s Best eggs, flour and garlic were added after the squeezing.

Kasha varnishka was cooked by toasting 1½ c whole kasha in 2 t of olive oil. Instead of 3 c liquid as called for on the kasha bag, 2 ½ c liquid was used. The gluten free bow ties, yes, for those of you who were not able to find gluten free bow ties, an Italian company called Le Veneziane makes corn based three dimensional bow ties called ‘farfalle’ that can be ordered online.

The Challa recipe is good. But it still needs adjustments and I will be doing that during the next several weeks. Gluten Free Pantry sandwich bread mix, Bob’s Red Mill tapioca flour/starch, Manischewitz potato starch, Eggland Best eggs, Red Star yeast was used in this recipe along with NOW guar gum, Clabber Girl baking powder and Arm & Hammer baking soda.

The two pies were made with Pillsbury gluten free pie dough found in the refrigerator section. I was going to make my usual pie dough using Gluten Free Pantry pie crust mix, but Amber took me to her local supermarket that carried the Pillsbury stuff and we decided to try that. This crust was good. I would use it again when I don’t have time to make my usual, if I can find it! Lactaid milk was used because I am lactose intolerant.

This pie crust needs to be rolled between two sheets of parchment paper. Follow the directions on the side of the tub.

And…roll the dough out gently from the middle to top and middle to the bottom, turn 1/8th turn of the parchment papers and dough, make another roll, make another turn, until you get back to the beginning. Slowly release the parchment paper, lay it back down on the dough. Turn over the whole thing so the bottom piece of parchment is now on top. Do the rolling thing again. Release the parchment paper and lay it back down. Do this until the dough is about 3/16th” thick and about 1 ½” larger than the pie plate. Any thinner and the dough will break up. Release the parchment paper from the dough on both sides so that the paper is not sticking to the dough on either side. Remove the paper from the top. Place the dough on the pie plate; remove the already released paper that is now covering the dough. Gently ease the dough onto the pie plate, cut the excess off (save to gather up to make more pie crust or decorations to add to your pies) and flute the edges using fingers and thumb. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before proceeding with the pie recipe.

I had to roll out each crust at least twice, sometimes more! They kept breaking up. I think I kept forgetting that gluten free dough is fragile.

8” disposable plates were used and two crusts were made out of each tub of the Pillsbury dough, if Pyrex pie plates, which are bigger had been used, two tubs of dough would have been needed for three crusts.

The night before Thanksgiving Alexi made meatballs using my recipe and using some of the Challa to make crumbs. This was the first time I had eaten food made with my recipes by someone else. The food was yummy everyone had seconds and thirds. The Thanksgiving meal was the same, everyone loved the meal.

In conclusion, it is entirely possible to make a meal totally gluten free and lactose free, that can be enjoyed even by those who are not gluten or lactose intolerant. Unless you tell them, no one will even know!

And the gluten intolerant person will not have to worry, and they will not have to feel excluded because they had to eat food that was different from everyone else. Think of it, if it is a child that is gluten intolerant, will he or she not feel excluded and deprived by having things they can’t have on the table? Will the parents not worry that the child might ingest something that could make them ill? Especially at a large meal, at a large gathering where everyone is catching up and busy visiting it would be so easy for a child to have something they shouldn't and end up ill. As you can see there is absolutely no reason for that to happen at YOUR table!

All you had to go out of your way to buy was:

A container of 2% Lactaid milk, ($5 per half gallon).

A bag of Bob’s Red Mill garbanzo bean flour, ($4 per bag).

A box of Le Veneziane bow ties (about $ 5 per box). If you can’t get bow ties, use some other shape, like penne, gluten free pasta which is easily found).

A couple of tubs of Pillsbury pie dough($5 per tub) to make this meal.

If you exclude the Murray’s turkey (most gluten intolerant people don’t have a poultry problem as far as I know), the Challa was made because it was the second day of Chanukah, or you can just make plain Gluten Free Pantry favorite sandwich bread ($5 per box) from the mix.

If there is a poultry problem and you can’t get gluten free poultry products, skip the chicken liver from the dressing. The turkey will be the only problem for the gluten intolerant person, unfortunately in this instance; your gluten intolerant person will have to have something other than turkey.

Otherwise, you have a totally gluten free meal on your table and no one has to feel left out and most importantly, GET ILL.

If you didn’t get to have a 100% Gluten Free thanksgiving in 2013, here’s hoping that you will do so in 2014 and thereafter. Or use some of these recipes for other holiday functions.

Best wishes,

Mrs. Gabby

P.S. The brand names of the gluten free products used in my recipes are written in bold type. These are product brands are easily available in my area and I use consistently. Please feel free to use the gluten free products available in your area that you normally use.

Monday, November 25, 2013

I wanted to make sweet potato latke instead of mashed sweet potato as we usually do for Thanksgiving as this year Thanksgiving falls on the second night of Chanukah. In case you might want to do the same, here is my recipe.

Yehuda makes gluten free matzo. I generally like to use their onion matzo to make into meal for matzo ball soup and for using for latke. Yehuda is the only brand that has gluten free matzo that my local supermarket carries. So if there is another one, I don’t know about it!

I break up the matzo into small pieces, about 1” (I do this inside a zip lock bag so that the crumbs don’t get all over the place. Once I make the meal, I place the unused portion in the same zip lock to store) and whir in my food processor for a few seconds to get the small lentil size pieces to use in the recipes. If you don’t have a food processor, place the small pieces in a zip lock bag, slide the bag closed, pushing out the air, then use a rolling pin or the bottom of a heavy pan to kind of mash up the pieces of matzo.

Oh yeah, remember the sweetness in sweet potato makes them burn easily, so make sure to watch out that the latke does not burn while cooking.

You can use the same recipe for making full potato latke. I do use the baking potato when I do that. I used the red skins which are more mashy to mix with the sweet potato to keep the latke together.

Yes, this is one of Peter’s favorites, especially served with my home made apple sauce.

Let’s get to the making of the latke.

½ c finely diced onion

½ lb sweet potato grated

½ lb Yukon gold or red skinned potato grated

2 t minced garlic

2 + T gluten free flour

2 t kosher salt

1 pinch cayenne

1 egg lightly beaten

Gluten free matzo meal

Vegetable oil

Grate both kinds of potato and the onion if you are a braver soul than I am. I just dice the onion. (I mix the salt with the potato as I grate to keep the potato from turning color.) Squeeze the potato mixture to get as much of the liquid out.

Mix potato mixture with the flour, cayenne, garlic and the beaten egg. If the mix seems to be too runny, add more flour or the matzo meal and mix well.

Heat ¼” oil in a skillet till hot, about 350F to 370F, using a ¼ c measure place mounds of the potato into the oil, using a spatula flatten the mounds to about 3” circles. Cook till browning on the bottom, flip over and cook till browned on the bottom side. Place on a rack to drain.

If you are nervous about placing mounds of wet potato in hot oil, place the mound in a flat saucer, flatten to 3” circle and slide into the oil.

You can vary what goes in the latke by adding chives, a little white pepper, omitting the garlic.

I have made this bread so many times, I can't even remember how many now! I believe more than ten times. Each loaf was a good tasting bread, but not Challa. So now I have a freezer full of bread. We made French toast with some, it was great. One of the earlier efforts was called Breakfast Bread by Peter, my husband, indeed it was delicious with cream cheese!

But, I wanted to come up with a braided Challa that tasted as close to store bought, as that is the yardstick most people with use to measure my efforts, but keep in mind that I AM MAKING GLUTEN FREE CHALLA! I kept adjusting the ingredients and the times.

I am giving you the names of the products I used because they are the ones that gave me the results I got. Which if I say so myself were super. I sincerely hope you get as good a result as I got.

Proof yeast (dissolve sugar in water in a bowl, sprinkle the yeast on top and leave for 10 minutes to see that the yeast is bubbly and alive) if the yeast is not alive, throw away the yeast mixture and start again, you either had yeast that was dead or the water was too hot or not warm enough. A little warmer than bathwater is good, you might want to let the yeast have 15 minutes to rise if you are unsure of the temperature.

Mix the dry ingredients with a whisk and add to the proofed yeast. I use a Cuinart 9 speed hand mixer on number 1 setting.

Beat oil, honey, warm water and eggs, when mixed it will look like melted butter. Add to the flour and yeast mixture in a slow stream using the mixer still on 1.

Mix the salt, the vinegar and water together and add to the dough and continue to beat until there is no flour left on the bottom of the bowl and the dough hooks are clean. (picture 1) if dough is too wet, add potato starch by the teaspoon and mix in with the mixer.

Place the dough on a kneading surface, (I used my Ikea square plastic tray). Pour a ¼ to ½ teaspoon of vegetable oil on your palms and knead the dough about 30 times. Pour about ¼ teaspoon more oil on your palms and knead about 10 more times, by now the dough should be smooth and not sticky.

Cover with plastic wrap and a tea towel and let the dough rise till doubled. Depending on where you do the rising, this could take between 60 to 120 minutes. Mine took 75 minutes. ( picture 2) I placed the tray with the dough right at the edge of the counter above the dishwasher which was running and draped the dish cloth covering the dough so that it hanged over the counter, thought that might help with the rising.

Prepare a cookie sheet by covering with a piece of wax or parchment paper and lightly spraying with cooking spray. Set that aside.

When the dough has doubled, gently. Cut the dough into 3, (picture 3) each piece of my dough weighed about 10.5oz. Make the triangles into balls, (picture 4) very gently, keep the pieces you are not working on, covered.

Taking each ball in turn, squish them between your palms very gently so you make a football shape. Next roll the shape into a log and then a snake about 15" so. (picture 5)

Braid the three strands of dough, pinch each end so they stay together and tuck under the loaf. (picture 6)

Once the braiding is finished, place the Challa on the prepared cookie sheet. (picture 7) find that I like to push the loaf from each end so the loaf is compressed and all the snakes touch each other. This helps to make sure that the slices with meld together when baked.

In case you don't know how to braid: join the three snakes at the top, keep the snake in the middle straight, spread one to the right and the other to the left. Take the left side snake and place it in the V made by the middle snake and the right snake. Now take the right side snake and place it in the V between the other two snakes. Go on in this manner until the snakes are all used up, pinch the ends and tuck the pinched bits under.

Cover with plastic wrap and a dish towel and let rise about 30 minutes. Uncover, brush with egg wash, recover and let rise while the oven preheats. My dish washer was still on for this rise.

Turn on the oven to 375F and let preheat 20 minutes. When the oven is ready, uncover the dough and brush with the egg wash again. The kitchen was warm by this second rise due to the oven getting preheated. So that I did not have to worry if the dishwasher was still on!

Place on the middle rack in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. (picture 8)

Take out, leave on a baking rack in a cool location and let cool completely before cutting.

This Challa is the closest to the taste and texture I have been able to make. I wish I could have made the top smoother. I shall continue to work on this until I can make it work. In the meantime, I give you my Gluten Free Challa to make for this holiday season. Peter who is the food taster in our house said, "That is good". I hope you all agree too.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Chanukah 2013 to all, especially those of you who have been gluten free and without Challa. Don't forget that Challa makes good French Toast.

Friday, November 22, 2013

I like Kasha Varnishka, actually I love it. But sometimes I want to do something different and this method of making kasha is different. Kasha is buckwheat, despite its name has nothing to do with wheat and is used rather widely in the middle east and eastern Europe.

1 c kasha ( I prefer to use whole kasha)*

1 T olive oil

1 ¾ c chicken broth or water plus better than bouillon**

1 T olive oil

4 c thinly sliced leeks

2 T water

1 t sugar

¼ c toasted chopped pecans

Coat the kasha with the oil. Toast in a hot saucepan for about 2 minutes or so. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Cover with a tight fitting cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Toast the pecans in a dry skillet over a high flame, as soon as the pecans begin to be fragrant, remove them and set aside to cool.

Add 1 T olive oil or butter in the same skillet, turn heat to low and cook the leeks for about 2 minutes, stirring. Add the sugar and water to the skillet and cook stirring for 2 more minutes. Turn off heat and let cool for a few minutes.

Toss the leeks with the kasha, sprinkle the toasted chopped pecans and serve as a side dish for a meat dish. Roast beef comes to mind, with Yorkshire pudding and beef gravy. Yum! Side dish for roasted chicken, baked fish or I like it stand alone with a salad on the side for lunch. Kasha is full of fiber and protein.

Enjoy!

*usually kasha is cooked by mixing well with egg or egg white, then toasting in a dry pan. This keeps the grains whole through the cooking process. I discovered that the same can be achieved by toasting the kasha in a little bit of oil.

**better than bouillon is a product that comes in a jar, it is a thick paste and rather salty. I use about ¾ t per cup of water and always check for saltiness before I continue with a recipe. It comes in vegetarian, beef and chicken.

What a yummy high protein, high fiber dip. Better yet, fast and easy and saves you money. The price is at least 50% less than what you can buy ready made hummus. And of course a 1000% better in taste as once you know the initial preparation, you can tweak the recipe to your taste.

I try to have this ‘condiment’ in my refrigerator at all times. Making it at home means you can adjust the seasonings to suit you or add additional flavorings such as sun dried tomato, pureed red bell pepper, cracked red pepper for a spicier flavor, etc.

The following recipe is slightly tart. If you prefer, use about 5 T fresh lemon juice plus pulp and omit the zest which is more intense in flavor.

Before you start to juice the lemons zest them. Cut them in half, and microwave for about 15 seconds and you can get so much more juice per lemon than if you didn’t. If you don’t have a microwave, roll the lemon on your counter, bearing down on the lemon and again, you can get more juice than if you did not. You can save the zest in the refrigerator in a jar or the freezer in a snack size zip bag. Also if you have more juice than your recipe called for, save the rest in a small jar in the refrigerator to use for another recipe or make yourself a lemonade! Will be fine for about 7 days, but then again, I have never gone past 3 days before using the juice.

Servings: about 10 (1/4 c each)

1 can drained and rinsed chick peas

1 T minced garlic

3 ½ T fresh lemon juice including pulp

1 T lemon zest (about 1T)

2 t salt

1/3 c tahini*

1/3 c olive oil

1/3 c water

Place everything in a blender or food processor. In a blender I place the liquids first. Process/ blend for 30 seconds, scrape down, process until smooth.

Scrape into a container and refrigerate. Can be kept for about 7 days, but I have to admit that this amount of hummus never lasts more than about 3 days in our house.

Serve with, cut vegetables and crackers with a grind of pepper (1/2 a pinch) and about ¼ t of olive oil drizzled on top.

Tahini is like natural peanut butter or almond butter, the oil has risen to the top. When you first purchase the jar, stir it up with a table knife. I place the contents of the whole jar/can/container in a food processor or blender and let it whir until everything is mixed up. Tahini is about the consistency of heavy cream. I pour the blended tahini in a clean jar and store jar upside down in a cool dry place along with the peanut butter and the almond butter.

Invariably I open a new jar of tahini when I am in the midst of making hummus. I place the ingredients in the same blender jar I used to stir up the tahini.

I always have shrimp in the freezer. I buy fresh shrimp, place them in a freezer box or bag, mix 2 t salt with 1 c water and add that to the shrimp and freeze the shrimp in the brine. When it is time to cook, it is easy to thaw by running under tepid water in the sink.

If you start the dinner with the rice on the stove first, dinner will be ready in about 30 minutes. That is as fast as you can expect the local pizza or Chinese place to deliver. And if you knew you were going to be late and had removed the shrimp from the freezer into the refrigerator in the morning, why you are that much ahead of the game.

Or you could have stopped at the local supermarket, bought a pound of shrimp and a bunch of asparagus on your way home! I know that is asking for a lot of organization. But I have two other very quick meals which are canned chopped clams with linguini and a salad or salmon spaghetti with frozen green peas.

1 lb large shrimp cleaned (20 or so per pound)

1 T olive oil

1 T chili powder

¼ t salt

1 lb cleaned asparagus

1 c rice

1 t salt

1 T butter or oil (optional)

water according to your bag of rice less ½ to ¼ c

Wash the rice in 3 to 4 changes of water. Pour water into the pot with the rice add 1t salt and 1 T butter and bring to a boil over high heat. Let the water boil for 2 minutes, cover, and lower heat to as low as it will go and cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Check to see if the rice is done after 10 minutes. Turn off heat and set aside. (Begin with ½ c less, add more if needed)

Once you had the rice going, you should have mixed the oil and chili with the shrimp, set aside and get the asparagus ready to cook.

I like to cook the washed asparagus in about a ¼ c of water in a large skillet with a cover for about 2 minutes depending on the thickness of the asparagus. You make it to your liking.

Dump any water remaining in the skillet, and heat the skillet till hot over high heat and cook the shrimp till they are all opaque and pinked.

By now the rice should be ready, fluff with a fork, serve with the asparagus and the shrimp.

Adjust the amount of chili powder you used according to your taste, add extra oil if you like to have a little oil. Sometimes I do just that and add the cooked asparagus for about 30 seconds into the skillet after removing the shrimp to add extra flavor to the asparagus.

If you aren’t a fan of asparagus, use some other vegetable. Snow peas cook fast as well as frozen and thawed green peas.

Make more or less depending on how many you want to serve.

Enjoy this quick and easy and tasty meal. You will have a pot and a skillet to clean along with the dishes, but wasn’t it so much more satisfying than calling for takeout? Wondering if it will be gluten free?

Just so you know this recipe is still in the experimental stage. As you can see from the photo they look great. They taste pretty good. But still not what I am looking for, I am after all looking for a closer than this to a real bialy.

This is a recipe I have been working on and Peter does not want me to mess with it any more. But I am sure I will and I will let you know when I do if the new messing about brings a better product.

If you used to love bialy before you got to be gluten free, you will notice these are not the same, but by now you should know that most bread stuff cannot achieve the sameness as wheat bread, they can be good, and tasty and better, but never the same. But if you never had a bialy before, you will say, hey these are good! At least I hope you do.

What is a bialy, you ask? Well it is an authentic New York City foodstuff by the way of Bialystock, Poland! Bialy's are not as well known or as prevalent as bagels, actually I am not sure if you can get them any place other than in New York City, even in the city, they are not available every place that sells bagels. But they are less bready, easier to make and to me, infinitely more delicious. You might be able to find them in a bakery in a Polish neighborhood outside of New York City.

Bialy is a great substitute for English muffins or crumpets, they are a flat bread. They are thinner than English muffins. But, if you split them in half they not as full of crannies as English muffins, and do remember not to use onion if you plan to use jam on them!

Oh yea, bialy's don't have a hole in the middle and they are not shiny and hard outside and soft inside like a bagel. Once I get the bialy's right, I shall start to work on bagels. But that is for another time.

As I've mentioned in other recipes I use an Ikea plastic tray which I find just right for kneading dough, rolling out pastry and such activity as the shiny plastic coating keeps the dough from sticking to the tray and thus makes it unnecessary to use too much extra flour, yes, sometimes you do have a sprinkle a little flour on the tray, but a lot less than with other surfaces and I find it is easier to make sure the tray is cleaner than to wash down counters.

You do need to make the starter 12 to 18 hours before you continue with the recipe.

Dissolve the yeast, sugar and water in a small bowl and set aside for 15 minutes by which time the yeast would have foamed. If the yeast has not foamed, you used water that was way too hot or your yeast was not fresh. If you store your yeast in the refrigerator, please let it come to room temperature about 15 minutes before mixing with the warm water and sugar.

While the yeast is proofing, measure out and mix the flours and guar gum and baking powder.

Add the fresh proofed yeast to the starter and stir till mixed.

Add the yeast mixtures to the flour mixture.

Dissolve the salt in the water and add to the flour and yeast mix and stir with a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon until the dry is mixed with the wet. At this point, use your hand, coated with a drop or two of olive oil, and gather the dough into a ball.

Now it is time to use a dough board, or an Ikea tray like mine and knead the dough for 6 to 7 minutes until it becomes a smooth and supple.

Cover the dough on the tray with an inverted bowl and leave in the oven with the pilot light on or if you don't have a pilot light, let the oven warm to 170F for 15 minutes and turn off the oven. This dough gets to rise for 2 hours.

After 2 hours. I find after 1 hour I need to turn my oven on for another 15 minutes to 170F. DO REMEMBER TAKE THE DOUGH OUT OF THE OVEN UNTIL YOU TURN OFF THE OVEN. Then place the dough back in the oven to rise for 1 hour more.

After 2 hours, take out the dough and gently roll it into a log. Cut the log into 8 sections. I like to weigh the sections and mine comes out to be about 3 oz each.

Roll the dough into balls, gently, then again gently press them out into disks about 3 ½". Then make a depression about 1" diameter in the middle of each disk. Place the disks on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper or foil sprinkled with a little rice flour or gluten free bisquick mix, cover with a piece of cling film and a dish cloth and place back in the oven for 45 minutes.

Take out the cookie sheet with the dough disks; turn the oven to 470F to preheat.

While the dough is rising, cook the diced onion in the olive oil till very lightly caramelized, golden actually. Let the onion cool till ready to use. Place about 1 T of the onions in the middle of each disk, don't worry if the onion goes beyond the depression you made, and place in the middle of the middle rack in the oven.

Bake for 12 minutes. The bialy is now ready. They are not supposed to get browned or golden. Check out the color in the picture below*. If you can only do 450F in your oven, bake the bialy for 15 minutes.

I like to cover the bialy with a kitchen towel for about 15 minutes before using. I prefer to eat this as is and when fresh from the oven with butter melting all over! But you can slather some cream cheese on top, top with scrambled egg, smoked salmon or slice of cheese. It's your bialy now and you can eat it any way you want.

Let the rest of the bialy cool under the towel. This will help the bialy stay soft. These have only a short shelf life. So after they are completely cooled, what we did not eat right away gets put in a plastic bag and frozen. I like to defrost these in the toaster just until they are not cold any more or maybe a little warm so I can melt butter on them. Or 20 seconds in the microwave.

Yummm, enjoy!

*you will see 12 on the blue Ikea tray in the picture. That was because I made 8, we ate 4 and I made 8 more slightly differently. The color you should look for is the color of the 8. If you think you would like them to be more like the 4, well go ahead, they are your bialy :)

Sunday, November 03, 2013

I like fish. Our
cardiologist wants us both to eat fish, but Peter is a tough nut when it comes
to fish recipes. The Chinese fish market
had lovely fat cod filets and I did not feel like making fish and chips so I
decided to try something else and it came out good. Even Peter likes this! Told me it was a keeper.

Now I will share it with you.

2 6 to 8 oz filets of
cod (only the thick section, 1 ½ to 2”)
(keep the rest to make fish and chips!

Place the two cod fillets in the pan with the broth cover
and simmer on low for 5 minutes.

Remove the cod and place in a buttered baking dish, remove
and throw away the bay leaf and the peppercorns. Reserve the cooking liquid.

Melt 2 t of butter in a small saucepan over low heat and add
flour and make a roux, stirring until the butter and flour are cooked through
and barely picking up color. Pour a
little of the broth into the butter/flour mixture and cook stirring till it
thickens.

Now pour the rest of the broth and vegetables into the
saucepan and cook till thickened. At
this point I use my stick blender to puree all the vegetables, you can use a
blender or processor.

Cook the sauce to thicken and reduce by about ¼ cup. This is now the time to add the chipotle
sauce and the sugar. Taste and adjust to
taste. The sauce should have a hint of
sweetness and a hint of heat not be too hot or sweet! Now add the yogurt and stir through.

Strain the sauce over the fish into the baking pan and bake
for 15 minutes.

Serve with savory dish with the vegetable and starch of your
choice. Bread is good, rice or quinois
or kasha (buckwheat) is good. Salad or
any sort of green vegetable is good. I
like the plate to look pretty so I always go with the kind of vegetables and
starch that would make the prettiest picture.

Enjoy… don’t forget dessert.
Since you are having such a healthy dinner this is a good time to
indulge yourself. For some reason I wish
I had made cinnamon pecan rolls. I wish
I had. I know Peter would have loved
that.

It's beginning to get slightly chilly outside, and I thought I should make chicken with dumplings.

Generally, I use a 3lb chicken for this recipe and have left overs, or must goes as we call leftover food in our house. So if you want, go ahead and double the recipe.

There is a chicken bariyani recipe that I liked that I wanted to make and so I will use the rest of the chicken for that.

I used a breast, Peter likes breasts ;) and a drum stick and a thigh for me. I like chicken legs, Peter's too, I think chicken legs are tastier than breasts, unless it's in a sandwich, chicken fingers, or chicken parmesan. Oh yeah must not forget chicken with peanut sauce!

The dumplings can be plain, or with herbs, I like herbed, you can use several kinds of herbs or just one kind. In this recipe I always use fresh herbs; todays were rosemary, parsley, thyme, sage, and marjoram. I prefer to use just parsley if that is the only kind of fresh herb I have, if there is no fresh herbs available I make plain dumplings. The dry kind doesn't give the green sort of flavor I am looking for. But you can experiment. Just remember that 1 t dry equals 1 T fresh.

Saut￩ the onion on medium to low heat with the oil for 5 minutes in a Dutch oven with a tight fitting lid, stirring occasionally.

Add the rest of the vegetables and saut￩ all for 15 minutes or so. I begin with the carrots, then add the turnips, then the parsnip and last the celery. You see, I diced the onion and get that on the stove cooking while I diced the rest of the vegetables and add them one at a time as I get them cut up.

When the vegetables are done, place them in a bowl and set them aside and continue with the recipe in the same pot.

Chicken for the chicken and dumplings:1 t olive oil1 skinless drum stick1 skinless thigh1 bone from the breast, reserve the chicken breast for later1 carrot cut in 41 stalk of celery cut in 41 small onion cut in 42 t kosher salt4 to 6 peppercorns2 bay leavesStems from the fresh herbs you used for the dumplings2 to 3 c room temperature water, enough to cover the chicken1 T gluten free bisquick or rice flour2 T water

Add the olive oil to the pot on medium low heat, add the chicken and the bone and saut￩ about 5 minutes, turn the meat and bones over and saut￩ 5 more minutes to pick up a little color.

Add the carrot, celery, onion, bay leaf, peppercorn, salt and the stems from the herbs if you used fresh herbs, saut￩ stirring for about 5 minutes, then add the water and bring to a boil on high heat. As soon as the water boils, cover and lower the heat to low and simmer for 40 to 60 minutes.

Check seasoning to your taste.

Remove the chicken breast bone, carrot, celery and onion. I don't throw these away; I save the vegetables for a snack for the next day and strip the meat off the bone to add to my vegetable snack. Leave the herb stems and the bay leaf to add extra flavor until the dish is finished before removing them.

Mix the bisquick or rice flour with the water and add to the broth in the pot. Stir.

Cut the chicken breast into chunks and place in the pot. I cut up the breast and the tender into 11 pieces.

Place the saut￩ed diced vegetables in the pot and stir the pot to distribute the vegetables with the meat. Make sure the meat is submerged in the broth.

Check seasoning again. And make sure that the broth is thick as you want it.

Place the dumplings with a spoon on top of the chicken and vegetables. I usually get 4 dumplings. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

By now the chicken breast is done, the dumplings are done and the vegetables are soft, the dumplings have thickened the broth and reduced the amount of liquid and the flavors are all blended.

This is a one pot meal, just right for Peter and me with perhaps a bit of left over for my lunch tomorrow.

As you can see my dumplings are kind of flat and spread, that is because I used the whole egg rather than half. Too much liquid will do that! If you are into lovely round dumplings, use half a beaten egg or just the white or the yolk.

Enjoy!

*when you chop the herbs, finely, if you have more than 2T, add the rest to the pot with the chicken.** I used 2% Lactaid milk but soy or almond or coconut would do fine, water works well as well as some broth. ***dice all the vegetable into ﾼ" dice.